It was far from quiet at City Hall on Tuesday as demonstrators protested outside council chambers for the second consecutive council meeting.

As city councillors dealt with motions, zoning changes and other regular council business inside, demonstrators from Marineland Animal Defense — a self-described campaign of concerned citizens determined to end animal captivity at Marineland — banged pots and pans, chanted (some through megaphones), and played a siren outside, standing just below the second-floor council chambers windows downstairs. Group spokesperson Dylan Powell said they were protesting at city hall for four reasons: council’s refusal to enforce bylaws against Marineland, the lease of a piece of public land to Marineland owner John Holer, attempts by the city to stop the group’s summer protests outside the park and what they perceive as the mishandling of the Green Oaks trailer park issue.

“Now that it’s the off season, we decided to put the focus back on city council and highlight the support they give to Holer,” Powell said, adding only two councillors spoke against the three-year lease of public land to the park’s owner who said at the time it was for increased “beautification” efforts.

Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati said that while he supports the group’s right to protest, he doesn’t understand what they’re trying to accomplish by doing it at council and it has left him and other councillors “scratching their heads”. During the last protest, he said people were yelling “shut it down” at him as he walked to his car.

“We don’t have that power as a council and they know that,” he said, adding there are probably better ways to have their message heard.

However, Powell said appearing before council as a delegation isn’t a viable option for the group.

“There’s no space for us in there,” he said.

Jane Leach made the trek from Ridgeway for the protest, saying she went to support the animals.

“It’s important that (council) takes a stand for the animals,” she said. “There is only one orca whale there in the park. That’s not right and they know that.”

The group plans on continuing its protests moving forward, building up to a large scale demonstration planned for May 18th outside the park. Powell said that even through critics say their theatrics can lose them support they’ve found quite the opposite in terms of participation at protests.

“We’re growing our base and each time, more and more people come out,” he said.

The group has also embarked on a social media strategy campaign to send focused tweets to Chippawa-raised filmmaker James Cameron. The group is hoping the award-winning director and recent vegan will attend the May 18th opening day demonstration.